I just heard that MP3.com, one of the original sites for independent musicians, has been sold to CNET and will be taken offline. It’s no big surprise–they were a classic example of a misguided dot-com company that hoped to make money by giving things away for free. Later they lost focus on independent music and joined the file-sharing free-for-all. Not surprisingly, this made the record labels unhappy. MP3.com was already doomed when Vivendi purchased them in 2001.

Nonetheless, I miss them. Long before MP3 became synonymous with ‘illegal copy’, they were a source of interesting independent music and a godsend for musicians. You can still hear two of my recordings from a while back on MP3.com, until the site goes down on December 2nd.

I suppose I’ll have to move my music to one of the remaining distribution sites, like CD Baby. Better yet, I’ll probably go with Magnatune–an online record label that is doing some interesting things and is Not Evil ™. Or maybe I’ll give up on making money and just use a Creative Commons license.